Radiation detection is of major interest in a host of applications in nuclear medicine, fundamental physics, industrial gauging, baggage scanners, and oil well logging, amongst others.
Semiconductor detectors, such as silicon avalanche photodiodes (Si-APDs), are widely used for the detection of X-rays, gamma-rays, as well as particles like neutrons, alpha particles etc. Ionic semiconductor detectors can have higher photoelectric and total attenuation coefficients than other semiconductor detectors for gamma-rays. Ionic semiconductor detectors can also operate at room temperature with low dark current in the same manner as other semiconductor detectors. However, ionic semiconductor detectors, such as thallium bromide, generally have not been widely used due performance problems, such as reduced internal field and detector instability, which can result from polarization under applied bias at room temperature. Accordingly, improved detectors and methods are would be useful.